Speakers at a workshop said that the government lays due importance to ensuring food and nutrition security across all age groups and categories of individuals in the country, even in the rural hard-to-reach household levels areas.
They said in line, the government under the Ministry of Agriculture through the development and rolling out of different nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific interventions as well.
The observations were made in the closing ceremony of a three-day training titled ‘Training for Trainers Workshop for officials of Bangladesh Institute of Research and Training on Applied Nutrition (BIRTAN)' for capacity strengthening of officers at Sub-national level on FNS Policy Frameworks’.
Kamalaranjan Das, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture attended the workshop as chief guest.
While addressing, he said there is no alternative in disseminating vital nutrition information by spearheading mass awareness campaigns at the sub-national level.
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Ministry of Food organized the 3 day workshop in support with Bangladesh Institute for Research and Training in Applied Nutrition (BIRTAN), Ministry of Agriculture and Bangladesh National Nutrition Council (BNNC), the EU and USAID funded ‘Meeting the Undernutrition Challenge (MUCH) project of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and in the Food Planning and Monitoring Unit (FPMU).
The workshop aimed at capacitating the officials of the BIRTAN to impart further training to strengthen the capacity of government officials across sectors at District and Upazila levels to implement relevant FNS policies, contribute to annual multi-sectoral food and nutrition planning, and improve delivery of nutrition services, in line with the NFNSP PoA 2021-2030 Area of Intervention ‘Enhance human resources capacity and nutrition expertise with multisectoral training and experience’.
Dr. Md. Khalilur Rahman- Director General, BNNC and Md. Abdul Wadud- Additional Secretary and Executive Director, BIRTAN attended the workshop as special guests, while Md. Shahiduzzaman Faruki- Director General, FPMU presided over the event.
Officials from FAO, FPMU and BIRTAN including other staffs from USAID and EU funded FAO’s MUCH project, nearly 25 officials from BIRTAN, Ministry of Agriculture attended the workshop among others
In opening ceremony, Dr. Md. Khalilur Rahman, DG, BNNC said that, ‘Indeed Bangladesh is making progress on nutrition, yet we have to go beyond to achieve the targets of SDG 2030. And so, we should feel and at the same time realize to making good nutrition everyone’s responsibility so that, no one should leaving behind”.
This emphasis on capacity development of government officials through training of trainers fits the broader agenda of the National Food and Nutrition Security Framework and the related United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 2030 for Bangladesh.
Md. Abdul Wadud, Additional Secretary and Executive Director, BIRTANin his speech said he was very happy with the capacity building of BIRTAN’s officialsthrough this workshop and he also appreciated the important role played by BIRTAN’s staff in various implementation steps of the nutrition-focused interventions, supporting the communities at grassroot levels in the field.
The FAO expert stressed that the main output is to have trained BIRTAN, Ministry of Agriculture officials across the country through this ToT workshop to support the Government to spur nutrition-sensitive and nutrition-specific actions and further their successful implementation.